Wednesday, August 31, 2016

Hello! Welcome to the Frilly and Funkie Challenge Blog! It's Nancy, and I'm beyond thrilled to be hosting our latest two week challenge.

Our theme, Floral Infatuation, celebrates the beautiful blooms of the season. The guidelines are super simple: create any vintage or shabby chic project with flowers as a focal point.

At the end of the challenge the team will choose their top four picks. Our first place winner will be invited to join us in a Guest DT spot here at Frilly and Funkie. Three additional talented participants will receive badges to display on their blogs. Everyone who enters and adheres to the challenge guidelines will be entered into a drawing to win a $25 spending spree at The Funkie Junkie Boutique!

The guidelines for entering are simple; create a new vintage or shabby chic project following the challenge theme, link it below to your post (not just your blog) and include a link back to this challenge in your post. You can combine our challenge with up to 10 challenges (including this one) to be in with a chance of winning. Make sure you follow the guidelines, as unfortunately we have had to eliminate entrants from the prize draws in the past when they have entered too many other challenges. If you are entering through a public forum please use keyword F&F. Also, please be sure to turn off your Word Verification so our design team can leave comments on your blogs.

Today the Funkie liadies are here and they too are absolutely blossoming with inspiration!

Thank y'all so much for visiting with us. We'll return tomorrow with something special from our latest Guest Designer and in one week to share the fabulous floral stylings of the Funkie team!

Now is the moment we turn everything over to you. We know you've got a great stash of flowers, so pick your faves and start creating! We'll be stopping by your blogs to get a close up view of your gorgeous art. Wishing you joy, laughter, and crafty adventures!

Monday, August 29, 2016

Here we are at the beginning of a new week and nearly reaching the end of August; it's time to announce our latest Frilly and Funkie challenge winners. Thank you so much to everyone who took the time to enter our 'It's a Small, Small World' challenge. The Design Team were amazed by the high standard of the entries you created and had lots of favourites to choose from. After much deliberation we picked the overall winner, #11 Autumn.

Autumn transformed this denim cord spool into a wonderful inspirational scroll with hand lettering and exquisite embellishments. Congratulations Autumn on being our favourite for the 'It's a Small, Small World' challenge and winning the opportunity to be a Guest Designer here at Frilly and Funkie for a future challenge.

And now for the next three winners of our Frilly and Funkie Top 3 Badges; this week's choices, in numerical order, are... #9Tofa, #12 Sara Emily, and #15 Barb Turpin!!! Please email Linda at thefunkiejunkie@gmail.com for the codes for the Top 3 badges so that you can display them proudly on your blog.

A huge thanks from the Frilly and Funkie team to everyone who took part in this challenge and congratulations again to our winners. Please email Linda at thefunkiejunkie@gmail.com for the codes for the winner's badge and to give us your email address for the Guest Designer details (Autumn) for the Top 3 badges (Tofa, Sara Emily and Barb) and for the gift certificate details (Mary Elizabeth).

Our current challenge, 'Floral Infatuation' runs through Tuesday, September 6th. We hope to see you entering this time around so that you too can be in with a chance to win.

Saturday, August 27, 2016

Hello and welcome to today's Step x Step ! It's Sue here and today I'm sharing a project that includes some experimentation with the Prima Sculpture Medium. I have been intrigued by the recent popularity of creating projects which include using products that make fabric go hard, so thought this would be a good opportunity to have a dabble !

I have one or two notebooks that I've decorated in the past and they are now in need of a new lease of life, so I started by removing the cover from this little book.

To neaten everything up I covered the book with some Tim Holtz Tissue Wrap and coated it with Glue 'n' Seal. Not knowing what I was going to do next it's always wise to coat paper like this as it protects it from the moisture of paints etc.

The Sculpture Medum takes a while to dry and I needed the fabric set hard so the next job was to soak some Petaloo Burlap flowers in the medium.

I made different size, wire circles by wrapping the wire around my fingers then pushing the still wet flowers into them so they would dry in this shape.

The fabric I've used is a light gauze and I've soaked it in the Sculpture Medium then positioned it on the front of the book, poured on a little more and sprinkled Art Stones and Mini Art Stones over it.

I pushed the flowers out of their wire circles and glued them into place, I also decided that the wire circles looked useful so used them too !

Once everything was dry I gave it a coat of Prima Art Alchemny Light Patina acrylic paint.

While the Light Patina was still I wet I used Lime Peel, blending it around the edges of the fabric.

Now to start adding some depth, Deep Waters is a beautiful deep blue and using it while the previous layers are still wet lets it blend in beautifully.

I used Blackberry to add even more depth, this colour is perfect for shadows as it's not as definite as using black.

Time to soften everything and Silver is a great colour for this, I just brushed it lightly over the texture.

I paid particular attention to the Art Stones and centres of the larger flowers while using the Silver.

I debated whether or not to add some words but I rather liked the finished project without.

From this angle you can see how the fabric has shaped itself.

Just for completeness here's a shot of the back cover which I've painted with the same acrylic paints and used my finger to blend them together with a drop of water.

I hope you've enjoyed today's step x step, the Sculpture Medium is definitely something that I will be doing alot more with !

Friday, August 26, 2016

Hello! Thank you so much for joining us at The Frilly and Funkie Blog! It's Nancy, and I'm excited to be back this week with my second post for our Friday Focus on Spellbinders. All Spellbinders products continue to be on sale for an additional 15% off the already discounted price at The Funkie Junkie Boutique for one more week! If I haven't mentioned this already, I love everything about Spellbinders products. Their beauty and versatility make them a craft room necessity.

I'm sharing a fun and easy portfolio mini album with you today. It's filled with all kinds of Spellbinders (and Prima) goodness!

Cut a piece of design paper to 12 inches wide by 9.5 high. Score the 12 inch (width) side at 1/4 inch, 6 inches, and 11 3/4 inches. Score the across the 9 1/2 inch (height) side 3 inches from the bottom. Fold at all score lines.

Fold paper in half at the 6 inch mark. Place Spellbinders Curved borders One die at edge of the 3 inch score mark. Tape in place with repositionable tape. Die cut in machine of your choice.

While paper is still folded in half, cut the 1/4 inch score lines 6 1/2 inches until you reach the top of the pocket. Distress all exposed edges with Tim Holtz Distress Tool.

Apply strong adhesive to front tabs of pocket. Fold up at 3 inch score line to create pocket. Fold tabs over and adhere both sides to the design paper below.

Fold page in half at the 6 inch score line. Now you have a portfolio folder with a pocket on each side. You can make as many or as few pages as you choose. For demonstration purposes I have 4 pages.

Binding the album is simple, but explaining it makes it seem more complicated than it is. Decide which order you wish your pages to be in. Beginning with the page you will use as your cover, apply about 3/4 inches of strong adhesive all the way down the edge of the BACK of the page on the side with the opening.

Adhere page two of your album to the cover page. It will look like the photo below.

Adhere all pages in the same 'accordion' manner. When finished it will look like the photo below.

Next adhere the back edges of your album with strong adhesive in the same manner. When complete you will have a flat album as shown below.

Cut and distress a 6 by 3 1/2 inch piece of design paper.

Adhere strip of paper to back of album to create an attractive spine.

The photo below demonstrates the way your bound album will appear.

Cut two of the largest squares from Label 49 Decorative Elements. Adhere them in a staggered manor as demonstrated below.

My new favorite stamp is Tammy Tutterow's Big Fabric Background stamp. It's inked up with Walnut Stain Distress Ink and the album is stamped inside and out to add a distressed feel. I use just the edge of the stamp that looks like water stains.

Below is a photo of the stamped front cover. I'll show you the inner pages individually at the end of the post.

Cut the largest Spellbinders Oval Floral die from design paper and cut the piece in half.

Arrange your flowers and adhere them to the album. I can never resist adding a bow.

I also can't resist some last minute bling! Below are photos of the finished project.

Thank you again for visiting! With an extra 15% discount on all Spellbinders products, now is the time to head over to The Funkie Junkie Boutique and add a few new dies and stamps to your crafty stash. Wishing you health, happiness, and a sprinkling of pixie dust!